News February 22, 2024
Spotlight on Engineering Week 2024
During Engineering Week, we spotlight the innovative Shakespeare Movable Seating Towers project at The Yard, Chicago’s Shakespeare Theater – a project that involved members of our talented structural engineering group. Bill Ipema served as Project Manager, and Robert Lau, as Project Engineer, in collaboration with Show Canada to design and engineer nine innovative four-story towers. These towers, each weighing over 14 tons, could be rearranged into numerous configurations, meeting the unique demands of different productions, and showcasing exceptional engineering and creative solutions. The success of this project was made possible through collaboration with architects Adrian Smith Gordon Gill, engineers Thornton Tomasetti, theater consultant Charcoal Blue, contractor Bulley & Andrews, tower architect ICL, and fabricator Show Canada.
The project faced numerous challenges, including the need for the towers to fit together modularly and for all components to be transported through the theater’s double doors while weighing less than the superstructure could support. But how could such heavy structures be moved to within inches of the necessary location? The solution: equipping the towers with air casters, allowing them to float across the theater floor like hovercrafts, easily guided by two people. This creative approach made it possible to move these “four-story buildings,” complete with utilities, within the theater, showcasing an exceptional level of flexibility and creativity in theater design. This project not only highlights the key role of structural engineers in innovative A/E projects but also set a new benchmark in the adaptability of performance spaces. This project was awarded ‘Best Project’ by SEAOI in 2018.
[Photos by Vito Palmisano, Chuck Osgood, and James Steinkamp Photography; Video and graphics by K&H]
